GEN HASNAIN ON NARENDRA MODI

Ata Hasnain I have taken it upon myself to spread a positive word about today's electoral results among the minorities who may be apprehensive. I expected someone else to do it but then realized that no one like's sticking one's neck out and I have been one with neck stretched to the limit. I tested it by placing a message on Moderate Voice of Kashmir page and found some excellent responses. What people have to realize is that there is a lot of difference between a campaign and subsequent governance. Every one tends to take utterances and gestures of a campaign quite literally. Many from the minority communities, especially the youth, have voted for Narender Modi. They too were apprehensive because for them it was all about testing the waters. I think this election is going to bring about a historic change in India. It may still take a little time for the minorities to come out of their mistrust and self doubts. For some one like me and many others who have had a cosmopolitan upbringing and exposure to a profession such as the Army there is never any apprehension. I always believe and say it aloud that the one thing a Pakistani citizen misses most is the opportunity to have friends and associates from different faiths. In India we take it for granted. We eat in each other's houses, see movies together and play games through childhood unmindful of the great education one is receiving in the process; the education of Tolerance and Acceptance. That needs to be taken into real life too. But there are many others who never get that chance and are brought up on a diet of exclusion; you cannot blame them; they have not been so fortunate. It is for society to infuse that confidence in them so that they too start believing in the delights of pluralism. In my perception a new chapter has opened in India's history. It will be a a great chapter if the minorities shed their fears and participate whole heartedly in this fresh and very passionate turn towards nation building in which all of us have a role to play. Nation building does not mean building up a community or a segment; it is every one at the wheel. The benefits of progress everyone is looking to are bound to flow if a disciplined, stable and committed government comes at the Centre. In many years we at last have it. Let us not allow this opportunity to pass with mutual suspicions and lack of confidence. If you are a true and well meaning Indian shed the inhibitions you may have had during the election campaign and look forward to the positives of growth. Somehow India has forgotten the meaning of stability; with its return it will take a little time getting used to it. But I think we are in for an El Dorado. So be it. Like ·